Beetle in amber stirs questions on rise of flowering plants and pollinators

The discovery of a beetle and pollen in 105-million-year-old Spanish amber is proof of a new insect pollination mode that dates to the mid-Mesozoic, before the rise of flowering plants. The study places this discovery in the context of a growing body of fossil evidence that reveals a rich diversity of pollinator relationships and modes between insects and a once dominant non-flowering group of plants — the gymnosperms — before flowering plant diversity exploded.